Review By Satis Shroff: A Glance at Eternity

Review: A Glance at Eternity (Satis Shroff)

German Edition Eben Alexander MD: Blick in die Ewigkeit Die faszinierende Nahtoderfahrung eines Neurochirurgen Ansata, Münich 2013.

Proof of Heaven. Simon & Schuster, Inc, New York, 2012. 256 pages, Hardback,

ISBN 978-3-7787-7477-9

 

The soul is not born, nor will it die. This self doesn’t have an origin, and nothing originates from it. Birthless, constant, eternal and with age this self doesn’t decease when the body is killed. (Katha Upanishad)

The Upanishads are spiritual teachings of Hindu philosophy scriptures dating back to 1000-800 BC. The basic thought of the Upanishads is the identity of the individual soul and universal soul. You as an individual have a fully complete, Godly manifestation of the entire cosmos within you.

The author is a renowned neurosurgeon with 25 years of experience at the Havard Medical School, Boston. He got ill in November 2008 with a bacterial meningitis and was in a coma for seven days. He describes his near-death experience and scientific research on the subject in his book ‘Blick in die Ewigkeit , which has become a world bestseller within a short time.

It was medically proved that during his coma his brain-functions were stopped, and in this phase the author delved into the deepest level of extra-somatic existence, flooded with a current of consciousness without a begin and an end. The universal truth that he experienced there made him change his insight about the world, life and death forever.

The neurologist reports in the book in detail about his fascinating journey into another dimension. Based on his own scientific research, he provides evidence that everything he experienced during the coma was real. The message of the book is hope and certainty, and it throws a new light about life and death, namely that death is not the end but a transition into a higher world.

On November 10, 2008 the patient Dr. Eben Alexander was medically examined in a US hospital by a specialist for infectious diseases Scott Wade MD, and his diagnosis was bacterial meningitis. After a series of computer tomography scans of his head, a lumbal punction was performed to extract cerebrospinal fluid and it was found that he had gram-negative meningitis. And was treated medically with antibiotics. Since he was in a coma he was connected to an artificial respiratory device. He had Eschericia meningitis, and normally 97% people die in such cases. A miracle happened on the 7^th day. Eben Alexander opened his eyes and recovered soon.

In order to explain his multi-level interaction, his experience when his self left his body and in the center of the untra-reality, he uses a 9-point argument. Being a Havard medical lecturer and neurosurgeon, Dr. Eben Alexander was convinced that near-death experiences were nothing other than fantasies that occurred in his brain when a human is battling with death, even though they may be real. When he woke up from his coma he was a person with insight. Eben writes that the unconditional love and acceptance that he experienced in his journey to another dimension was, and is, the most important discovery that he has ever made. He knows deep in his heart  that his mission is to share this simple message, so that they can understand it.

The story of the metamorphosis Eben Alexander has undergone is told in the first-person singular. The book is about the personal experiences that have slowly and dramatically changed the author’s insight and opinion about the matter. In a parachute jump which demanded split-second reaction when he was jumping directly above his colleague Chuck, it was not his brain that saved his life. It was another part of him, a part on which he didn’t believe in his adult life. But now he believes it and provides evidence why.

The story of the approach from a dark tunnel or a valley into a bright, lively, ultra-real landscape is very old. The descriptions of angels with, or without, wings goes back to the Orient, and the belief that such beings are guardians, who watch over the activities of people of this earth, and greet the people who leave the earth when they decease. Eben Alexander writes lucidly about the feeling to be able to see in all directions and to be above the linear time, yes, above all, was for him landscape of human life; hearing choral music that pierce you through and through, and is not only registered by your ears; the ability to understand complex conception easily for which you normally need a lot of time and extensive studies, and lastly the spheres of intensity of a boundless love..

The many books about near-death experiences were written before the author experienced it, but he hadn’t read any them. He admits that wouldn’t have let the material come near, for he was not open to the thought that something survives after we die. He was the friendly but sceptical physician. He hadn’t taken the time to look at it earnestly, like most physicians in the West. He realised how ill he must have been when he later scrutinized the section scans of his brain inflicted with meningitis. The E.coli bacteria not only put out the neocortex function but also the deeper and primitive parts of the brain. Most patients don’t live to talk about such an invasion in the cerebrum.

A new technique was developed in the 1960s which made it possible for physicians to resuscitate heart patients when their hearts stopped breathing. Patients who’d died earlier were brought to life (defib!). This technique brought people who’d left this earth back again to life; patients who’d been, and seen, beyond the veil of death returned to tell about this near-death experience. Today, there are millions of such near-death story tellers around the world. In the year 1975 a medical student named Raymond Moody wrote a book ‘Life After Death: studies on an Unexplainable Experience’ in which hen wrote about the story of George Ritchie.

This was the beginning of the modern age of near-death experiences. However, it’s the brain, and not the heart, that matters in defining death. A heart arrest may lead within a few seconds to lack of blood-flow to the brain, which in turn leads to non-cooperation of neuronal activity, eventually resulting in loss of consciousness.

Surgeons and neurosurgeons have been stopping the heart-function as a routine during surgical operations from minutes to hours. The patient breathes through the heart-ling machine and the brained is cooled to increase the patient’s chance of survival. After gaining consciousness Eben Alexander started reading existing literature on near-death experiences which was vast. It didn’t take long for him to realise that a lot of people had had the same experiences, even though they weren’t alike.

Is Eben Alexander the living proof of life after death? Yes, he is. The inflammation of his brain through Escherichia coli bacteria, which copies DNA cells at the rate of 69 billion in twelve hours and have the ability to conjugate and thereby exchange genes with other bacteria. We, humans, have E.coli in our gastrointestinal tracts. Ulcers on the backs of bed-ridden patients develop fast and are known to grow bigger when patients aren’t repositioned. E. coli is faecal discharge may infect open wounds. And when the E. coli bacteria become aggressive through other DNA, they reach the cerebrospinal fluid and the brain. They not only devour the glucose in the fluid but also brain tissues, especially in the cortex area, which is where the centres for speech, memory, emotions, visual and auditory functions and logical thinking centres are located. In Eben’s case the lumbal punction showed a hazy liquor. His last words in the hospital were: ‘God, help me!’

When he became unconscious he had no memory or identity like in a dream, without knowing who or what he was. He felt like a mole or earthworm buried deep in the earth and was able to discern a biological death smell.

Science will acknowledge what Eben Alexander MD has experienced and more studies have to be carried out and evaluated, for science demands that experimental results must be reproduced under field conditions everywhere. A neurosurgeon has made a start in bringing spirituality and science together, even though they’re normally strange bedfellows. Eben remains adamant that the unconditional love and acceptance he experienced during his journey is the most important discovery that he’s made or can make.

The author speaks of Om as being more human than you or me. Om has understand for and sympathy with our human situation, which is deeper and personal than we can imagine, because Om knows what we have forgotten and understands what a terrible burden it is to live without memory of the Godliness even for a moment.

He feels he has a calling to spread the simple message so that even children will be willing to accept and tell about it, for in the kingdom of earthworm perspective he realised that he was a part of the Godliness and nothing would take this away from him.

In this context I can only say: namaste! I greet the Godliness in you..

www.Eternea.org: for those interested in spiritual transformative experiences